If you want to jump right in…
Click the arrow to play the audio: [audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/sellingstorageaudio/Final+Marc+Smith+Interview.mp3]
Download By Right Clicking Here (Choose “Save File As”, “Save Target As”, or “Save Link As”)
Here’s Why I’m Posting This Interview
Even when self storage managers are encouraged to follow up with prospective customers, they often don’t do it because they are afraid. They fear irritating or alienating the prospective customer by coming across as pushy or overbearing.
You might think it odd for me to interview a guy from an internet company about follow up, but Marc isn’t the technology guy. He’s the sales guy and he must have followed up with me a dozen times before I became a premium subscriber to his lead aggregation service. I was always impressed with his excellent combination of tact and tenacity when he was following up with me.
So, when I decided I was going to create a workshop to teach self storage managers how to follow up with prospective renters, I knew I was going to try and grab an interview with Marc as a way to introduce the topic to you guys.
It runs 28 minutes and we cover a lot of ground…
- How many follow up attempts are appropriate
- How to use multiple channels of communication to your advantage
- Why you may be sabotaging your efforts with the assumptions you make
- What to do when someone feels you have pursued them too vigorously
- What tone of voice makes people want to call you back
Click the arrow to play the audio: [audio:https://s3.amazonaws.com/sellingstorageaudio/Final+Marc+Smith+Interview.mp3]
If you want to listen offline, download the audio by right-clicking the following link and choose “Save File As”, “Save Target As”, or “Save Link As”. Then save it to your hard drive. Since this is an mp3 file, you can listen to it on your iPod or mp3 player of choice. Download By Right Clicking Here
Here’s The Backstory on How This Interview Came About
You don’t need to read this to get everything important from the interview, but you might find it interesting.
If you don’t know Marc, he is the head-honcho sales guy over at StorageFront, and his growing roster of clients is living proof that effective follow up works. Like I mentioned above, he must have followed up with me a dozen times before I became a premium subscriber to his lead aggregation service.
Marc was super-generous with his time. He actually let me interview him twice because the first time around I made a rookie mistake and botched the recording. That’s the kind of guy Marc is.
In this interview he holds nothing back and there are a ton of really helpful nuggets that will help your self storage follow up efforts. If you haven’t listened to it already, jump back up there and give it a listen or download it and stick it on your mp3 player and listen on your commute.
I know this is a little more time investment than you might be used to, but its worth it. If you like it, please share it.
This is the fourth (and final – at least for now) post in a series about follow up.
If you missed the first post that outlines three cases when follow up is really helpful, you can check it out here.
The second post in the series: Warning: Your Offer To Beat Competitor’s Prices May Not Be Working walks you through why offering to meet or beat your competitors prices and move in specials is usually misused and often doesn’t work.
Up third, I outline how you can use effective follow up to get higher prices for your storage units and/or discount less. I titled the post A Simple And Honest Tactic For Getting Higher Prices. I think you’ll like it.
